value

Bokeh refers to blurry effects in photographs—purposely out of focus shapes that are creamy and wonderfully fuzzy. You can make your own bokeh with just some inexpensive black cardstock.

This DIY lens hood and cap, dubbed the Circle of Confusion Shape Modifier, is similar to a previous one we’ve featured before, except this one lets you change out the “slides” or bokeh shapes easily—so you’re not stuck with just one shape. The tutorial at DIYphotography is very detailed: It tells you how to set up the grid in Photoshop or Gimp, create the squares and cutouts, and assemble it all together.

Check out the original article and the reader comments for a discussion of the techniques used to create the effects in the photos, such as setting your camera to the lowest aperture value. Enjoy making dazzling, beautiful photos!

Amazon just kicked off a new TV campaign for the Kindle Fire, which it doubtless hopes will further dent sales of Apple’s iPad. But Kindle has a long way to go before it starts threatening the iPad as a device for serving online ads to consumers.

Data from Rimm-Kaufmann Group, an online marketing agency, show that the iPad maintains its total dominance of the tablet market when it comes to ad traffic. Kindle is slowly making progress, but it only has 3.48 percent of the market to iPad’s 88.1 percent.

iPad had a 93.44 percent share of the market late last year, so share is being traded quickly in this category.

With iPad 3 on the way, even those small gains for Kindle may be in jeopardy.

When it comes to ad performance, the iPad also has a significant edge. If you index the data to the average ad displayed on a desktop computer, ads on iPad get 10 percent more revenue per click, the same level of overall clicks, and a greater average order value.

All the other tablets, including Kindle, perform much worse than ads displayed on PCs.

iPad dominates ad traffic on tablets, but its dominance is slipping.

The Kindle is gaining share of ad traffic the fastest against the iPad.

But the iPad is still the most effective tablet device by far, for advertisers.

The security PIN system that Google Wallet users have to enter to verify transactions has been compromised. Thankfully, the chances of your wallet being used against you is relatively low—assuming you haven’t rooted your phone, that is.

Since Wallet saves your PIN in an encrypted file on the phone itself, rather than the secured NFC chip, if your phone falls into the wrong hands, that person could lift your PIN file from the phone and simply crack it using brute force. From there, he’d have access to—and use of—your Wallet account.

Security firm, Zvelo, discovered and reported the issue to Google, but because Wallet’s security architecture, the change will require a fundamental rejiggering of the security protocols. Man, talk about an oversight. According to Zvelo,

The lynch-pin, however, was that within the PIN information section was a long integer “salt” and a SHA256 hex encoded string “hash”. Knowing that the PIN can only be a 4-digit numeric value, it dawned on us that a brute-force attack would only require calculating, at most, 10,000 SHA256 hashes…This completely negates all of the security of this mobile phone payment system.

So, if you are rooted, be sure to take some additional security steps to protect yourself like activating the lock screen, disabling the USB debugging option in settings, and enabling full-disk encryption. Or maybe not losing your phone in the first place. [Zvelo via Android Central via The Verge]

The security PIN system that Google Wallet users have to enter to verify transactions has been compromised. Thankfully, the chances of your wallet being used against you is relatively low—assuming you haven’t rooted your phone, that is.

Since Wallet saves your PIN in an encrypted file on the phone itself, rather than the secured NFC chip, if your phone falls into the wrong hands, that person could lift your PIN file from the phone and simply crack it using brute force. From there, he’d have access to—and use of—your Wallet account.

Security firm, Zvelo, discovered and reported the issue to Google, but because Wallet’s security architecture, the change will require a fundamental rejiggering of the security protocols. Man, talk about an oversight. According to Zvelo,

The lynch-pin, however, was that within the PIN information section was a long integer “salt” and a SHA256 hex encoded string “hash”. Knowing that the PIN can only be a 4-digit numeric value, it dawned on us that a brute-force attack would only require calculating, at most, 10,000 SHA256 hashes…This completely negates all of the security of this mobile phone payment system.

So, if you are rooted, be sure to take some additional security steps to protect yourself like activating the lock screen, disabling the USB debugging option in settings, and enabling full-disk encryption. Or maybe not losing your phone in the first place. [Zvelo via Android Central via The Verge]

Ready for a bevy of more exotic-sounding codenames from AMD? Well, have a seat, as the maker of everyone’s favorite APUs just revealed its roadmap extending through 2013. And folks, it’s quite the doozy. But before we delve into its technical intricacies (which you’ll find tucked after the break), we’ll begin with some general takeaways. Per CEO Rory Read, 2012 and 2013 are “all about execution,” with the company girding itself for the the next “inflection point” where it’ll excel. The key to this strategy, as he describes it, is to continue marching towards a full-SoC design that will cover a host of devices running the gamut from mainstream laptops to tablets and so-called Ultrathins, the company’s forthcoming answer to Intel’s Ultrabook onslaught.

During its announcement, timed to coincide with AMD’s annual financial analyst day, the company also stressed its unique position wedged between Chipzilla and makers of ARM chips. Ask Read and he’ll tell you that’s a key advantage f! or AMD, that its CPU and GPU IP will bring more value through a better overall experience in the market. That’s a strategy less obsessed with raw specs and sheer speed and more focused on a holistic package. Senior VP Lisa Su said AMD will aggressively enter the tablet arena this year in a big way, reiterating that AMD-based Windows 8 slates are indeed en route, though she stopped short of giving an ETA. Finally, the company’s renewing its focus in the server market, as it seeks to cut a larger slice of the cloud computing pie. That’s AMD’s 2012 / 2013 plans in a nutshell, but if you’re the kind of person who likes a few technical specifics (and who doesn’t, really?) meet us after the break for a peek at what’s in store.

Although Pinterest had shown promise back in May, there would have been no way to predict the type of success they have seen since. Having grown 84% in Unique Visitors since we last wrote about them and 50% from October to November alone, it seems that Pinterest has piqued the interest of more than a few.

Having recently joined Pinterest myself, I was curious to see how Pinterest might play into the role of marketing. I noticed that a lot of my friends were posted clothing & material items they liked in almost a “wishlist” sort of way, so I was curious to see if this could double as a sort of targeted social advertising.

I decided to look at incoming and outgoing traffic to and from Pinterest.com to see how virtual pin boards might affect consumers.

While most of the Top 10 Referrals to Pinterest.com are among the top sites on the Internet, the more interesting data starts at #11. Etsy.com, Amazon.com, Craigslist.com and Ebay.com all bring at least .39% of all traffic to Pinterest.com – not to mention their growth in referrals this past November. Etsy.com increased its referrals to Pinterest.com by 7%, Ebay by 23%, and Amazon by 50%!

Looking further into the data, we see that Walmart, Toys R’ Us, Target, Zulily, Baby Center, Kohls, Houzz, JC Penney, Best Buy, and Zazzle are all within the Top 100 Referrals to Pinterest.com. What could this all mean? In the context of Pinterest, it would seem that users are inspired and excited by the products they see on these websites and want to add them to their visual collections and share them with friends. But once users leave retailers for Pinterest, are the retailers benefiting?

Well, one could argue that the impressions made on Pinterest users who view the shared item are enough value in themselves. Viewing a cute dress for a little girl on Zulily.com might inspire a Pinterest user to visit Zulily in the future or even make a purchase at a later date. But could there be any retail sales that start directly at Pinterest.com? I checked out outgoing traffic from Pinterest.com to get the scoop.

As you can see, Etsy.com is the #6 destination from Pinterest.com, swiping 1.5% of all outgoing traffic. Amazon, Ebay, Craigslist, & Houzz are all in the Top 30 destinations users immediately visit after Pinterest.com. Target, Walmart, & Anthropologie are also among the Top 100 destinations from Pinterest.com. Interestingly enough, Anthropologie wasn’t among the Top 100 incoming destinations which means that the content from Anthropologie shared must be expectionally engaging with Pinterest users.

Are you on Pinterest? Have you ever been inspired to buy something after looking at a friend’s virtual pin board? If you are a retailer, or online marketer, what do you think the future holds for Pinterest in this context?

In a sign of ever shifting priorities in the ole book business, Nook’s papa is reportedly looking to sell its publishing unit, Sterling Publishing. According to the Wall Street Journal, B&N acquired Sterling in 2003, ramping up its publishing efforts after more than 30 years in the business. News of a possible sale follows last month’s Q2 earnings report that saw a $6.6 million net loss for the bookseller. That same quarter, the company’s Nook business took an 85 percent leap forward, landing it a $220 million value. Barnes & Noble has yet to comment.

$41 billion is pretty hard to defend. We’re lazy; we have things to do; we… didn’t really want the damn things in the first place. Things have gotten a little better over the past few years, since the Card Accountability, Responsibility, and Disclosure (CARD) Act passed in 2009, but in 2011 there are already $2 billion in unused cards. That’s down from $8 billion in 2007, but still, $2 billion a massive amount of waste.

According to TowerGroup, which provided the gift card data, 85 percent of gift cards are used within 65 days. After that? Not so great. So do yourself a favor and get out there and actually spend the money your generous but highly inconsiderate family members gifted to you this holiday season. [ABC News]

In these, only 15% of college presidents said that most of their students have taken a class online. But half think that 10 years from now, most students will take classes online.

Interestingly, college presidents see a greater educational value for online learning than the general public. Some 51% of college presidents polled said online courses offer an equal educational value, compared to classroom courses, versus just 29% of the public.

Here, we start to see which types of colleges are leading the way in online learning: community colleges and less-selective colleges. Those trends are expected to lead the way, with 4-year private school presidents considering their undergrad student bodies the least likely to be taking online classes.

Not surprising: 62% of college presidents think that more than half of student textbooks will be entirely digital in 10 years. Only 7% of college presidents think that less than 25% of student textbooks will be entirely digital.

What’s helping that trend? Apple’s iPad. Here’s a bonus chart from Kleiner Perkins’ Mary Meeker showing just how fast the iPad is gaining steam relative to the iPhone and iPod.

We’ve all heard the nightmare stories about Groupon merchants who lost tons of money because they were suddenly overwhelmed with thousands of customers whom they were forced to serve at a loss: The British bakery that made 102,000 cupcakes. The Irish hairdressers whose customer base now consists entirely of people who only want their hair cut a discount. The Portland cafe that lost $8,000 because the owner failed to cap the number of deals she offered.

It’s not just Groupon, of course. There are loads of other daily deal sites — Living Social, Thrillist, Google Offers, etc — but they all present merchants with the same problem: The conflict between offering below-cost deals to customers in hopes of attracting long-term “regulars” and structuring a deal so that you can still make a profit. The math can be tricky because merchants have to account for two different sets of discounts: The discount to the customer and share of the payment taken by the daily deal site for publicizing the offer.

Now TheDealMix, a site that aggregates daily deals into an impressively complicated map of your neighborhood, has produced an infographic that can help businesses calculate daily deal offers so th! at they won’t accidentally go bankrupt.

And, yes, The DealMix has presented its formulas in the form of cupcakes — particularly useful given the number of bakery-related Groupon disasters that have made the headlines.

Digital Consigliere

Dr. Augustine Fou is Digital Consigliere to marketing executives, advising them on digital strategy and Unified Marketing(tm). Dr Fou has over 17 years of in-the-trenches, hands-on experience, which enables him to provide objective, in-depth assessments of their current marketing programs and recommendations for improving business impact and ROI using digital insights.